Star Wars: Shadows of the Past
by ThatSWguy
Summary: A galaxy at peace does not tend to stay that way. During a routine excavation of a Jedi enclave a secret is discovered that will thrust new heroes to the forefront, as destinies manifest themselves within the shadows of the past.


The gentle breeze that swept through the grassy plains of Dantooine was enough to make Aedan Eclipse look up momentarily from the datapad in his hand. As he watched the wind danced through the grasslands and the cool feeling was welcome on a day like this. It was unbearably hot and that was never a good omen for the work that had to be done.

Aedan had been assigned to Dantooine by the Jedi Council six months prior, as a part of their ongoing effort to excavate the ruins of the Jedi Enclave there. The peace the galaxy had been enjoying under the Galactic Alliance afforded the order the luxury of working on projects that would have otherwise been put on the backburner in a time of war or hardship.

"We are not moving fast enough," Aedan remarked under his breath as he looked over the statistics displayed before him.

Numbers danced in front of his eyes as he attempted to calculate the amount of progress that needed to be made as the project neared it's six month point. What was supposed to have been a simple project, excavate the remaining unexplored ruins of the enclave and recover whatever ancient Jedi artifacts they could, turned out to be more difficult then was expected. The enclave had numerous rooms that were blocked off by debris that had remained there since the orbital bombardment the enclave received at the hands of Darth Malak, more then 4,500 years prior.

The first sign of trouble occurred innocently enough when mere days into the project the crew working to excavate the ruins broke into a hallway running between the underground superstructure and the above enclave. Among the considerable debris were defense droids, entombed for thousands of years, which attacked the workers and the Jedi overseers. Two workers were met by blaster fire that killed them instantly and it was Aedan's lightsaber that brought the droids down. Further excavation of the hallway was slow. Workers, spooked by the discovery of defense droids, moved slowly.

Aedan himself was in no hurry to continue the excavation at any sort of fast pace. He did not particularly care for the dull assignment he was tasked with. Aedan was widely considered one of the most talented Jedi in the entire order. He had many accomplishments to his name and his skill with both a lightsaber and the force were known far and wide. But during a routine mission to protect a political assassination target something had gone wrong. Aedan managed to kill the bounty hunter but not after he had gotten his prize, and the body count stood at three. The third death on the mission was Aedan's first padawan. Despite being only 26 at the time, Aedan was given a padawan to train, in order to speed him on his way to becoming the youngest Jedi Master in the history of the New Jedi Order. The fallout left him shaken and the order thought it best that he slow down take some time off and aid the mission to restore the temple on Dantooine. But after a few months Aedan's spirit had returned and with progress slowing to a crawl at the enclave, he felt like his place was among the stars, not digging up relics.

The breeze that had rolled through the valley had gone now, leaving only the sticky heat in it's place. As Aedan continued to frown at the datapad before him the comlink in his speeder began to signify an incoming call.

As Aedan placed the datapad down on the side of the speeder he reached in carefully to retrieve the comlink. Pressing the button on the side the speaker crackled to life and noise could be heard on the other side.

"Aedan?" A gruff voice asked over the noise from the comlink.

"Yes foreman?" Aedan replied, his eyes scanning the valley around him as he waited for the response.

"Alliance freighter just touched down in Khoonda, probably the supplies and the guest you mentioned arriving. Would you like us to send a welcoming party?"

Aedan gave a slight chuckle in response, "No, I'm sure they can find their way to us just fine. I'm on my way back now, and if anyone from that freighter beats me to the enclave, don't let them touch anything, everyone always wants to touch everything."

"Let them be the fodder for any remaining guard droids, got it." The comlink went dead as the excavation foreman had ended the transmission.

Aedan had a smile on his face as he jumped into the speeder and quickly got it turned on. The hum of the vehicles drive core was just faint enough that it was almost non-existent. Aedan pushed forward on the accelerator and sped off towards the Enclave.

As the speeder moved along the plains, hovering mere feet above the ground, the comlink began to make noise again. He once again, depressed the button to bring it to life.

"Yes?" Aedan asked quizzically to whoever was on the other end of the call.

"Aedan," it was the foreman again, "it is the strangest thing, right after I ended our call one of the workers informs me that we've managed to break through into the first cluster of rooms in the northeast passage of the upper enclave."

"I have to greet our guest but don't let the men go in to investigate, I'm not losing anyone else to ancient security systems. Stand by, I'm on my way."

Aedan hung up the comlink and continued on his way to the enclave. This was an interesting development, their weren't supposed to rooms in the northeast corridor, it had suffered the most damage of the orbital bombardment, the idea to try and salvage what they could was a fleeting thought Aedan had and the fact that it was working made him crack a smile. But for now he had other matters to attend to, a new Jedi knight was being sent to aid in the excavation efforts. This Jedi was named Miranda Lawson, a knight of Aedan's age who was also highly regarded within the order. Aedan had a great deal of questions for her, not the least of which was how she had ended up drawing this assignment. For now, Aedan put it out of his mind and continued to speed towards the enclave


End file.
